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Attorney General Buddy Caldwell has served a search warrant at the ACORN office at 2609 Canal Street, according to Tammi Arender Herring, a spokeswoman with the office. Investigators in khaki pants and polo shirts loaded several dozen computers and other electronic items into an SUV. They are also carrying records out of the building on handcarts. The large office building sits at the corner of Dorgenois and Canal. ACORN staffers were given no notice that a search would be conducted today, Herring said. "They have been extremely cooperative," she said. Early last month, Caldwell's office issued subpoenas for records from...

In a fast-breaking development comes word that agents of the Attorney’s General office in Louisiana have raided ACORN’s offices in New Orleans. ACORN’s New Orleans was, for decades, the headquarters of the national community organizing association. News of the raid comes from Marcel Reid and her colleagues at ACORN 8, an association of former ACORN leaders and board members. Many of the individuals involved with ACORN 8 were fired from ACORN for demanding a forensic audit following an embezzlement scandal involving Dale Rathke, brother of ACORN co-founder Wade Rathke. Check back her for more details, as well as a statement...

In a fast-breaking development comes word that agents of the Attorney’s General office in Louisiana have raided ACORN’s offices in New Orleans. ACORN’s New Orleans was, for decades, the headquarters of the national community organizing association. News of the raid comes from Marcel Reid and her colleagues at ACORN 8, an association of former ACORN leaders and board members. Many of the individuals involved with ACORN 8 were fired from ACORN for demanding a forensic audit following an embezzlement scandal involving Dale Rathke, brother of ACORN co-founder Wade Rathke. . Update: Big Government has contacted the Louisiana Attorney’s General office....

ACORN appears to have been involved in improper use of pension funds and this lawbreaking may yet land some of its officials in serious legal difficulties. That's according to F. Vincent Vernuccio, formerly a special assistant at the U.S. Department of Labor (and an American Spectator contributor) and editor of EFCAUpdate.org.

According to a July 9, 2008 article in the New York Times, Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN’s founder, Wade Rathke, “embezzled nearly $1 million from Acorn and affiliated charitable organizations in 1999 and 2000.” The Times reported Dale Rathke embezzled $948,607.50, “carried as a loan on the books of Citizens Consulting Inc., which provides bookkeeping, accounting and other financial management services to Acorn and many of its affiliated entities.” ACORN “chose to treat the embezzlement of nearly $1 million eight years ago as an internal matter and did not even notify its board.” According to an October 10, 2008...

“But whether you try to implement some or all of these recommendations, there must be someone committed to follow-up. There must be a review mechanism, and a means of holding people accountable after any final decisions are made. If you do not make some hard choices now and ensure they are carried out, they almost certainly will be made for you.” –Elizabeth Kingsley of Harmon, Curran, Spielberg Eisenberg LLP, in a prophetic legal memo to ACORN dated June 19, 2008, the day before ACORN’s national board ousted ACORN founder organizer Wade Rathke ACORN’s lawyer warned ACORN 15 months ago to...

Judicial Watch is going after ACORN with Freedom of information requests regarding two of the groups many scandals. The first one may could re-open the case of alleged embezzlement in which Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN's founder embezzled almost one million dollars and the crime was "swept under the carpet" by the group. According to a July 9, 2008 article in the New York Times, Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN’s founder, Wade Rathke, “embezzled nearly $1 million from Acorn [sic] and affiliated charitable organizations in 1999 and 2000.” The Times reported Dale Rathke embezzled $948,607.50, “carried as a...

SEIU endorses Obama *Aiding ACORN are groups like DEMO’s, the Democracy Alliance, Soros Open Society Institute, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). *“ACORN’s so-called ‘muscle for money’ strategy extorts ‘donations’ from targeted government and corporate officials by offering them Mafia-like protection from protests by the group’s own paid thugs, ..” *..their 2007-2008 ventures with SEIU against the Carlyle Group that deserve a closer inspection. .. *“...SEIU .. staged a protest outside the Pennsylvania Avenue headquarters of The Carlyle Group as part of the union’s bid to organize Manor Care, the Toledo-based nursing home giant Carlyle is buying for...

As various charges and complaints have materialized over the years, it seems that ACORN uses the communities in which they are located as staging grounds for national power grabs. With multiple states and entities receiving federal funds, ACORN plays to win. Aiding ACORN are groups like DEMO’s, the Democracy Alliance, Soros Open Society Institute, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The Washington Examiner has covered ACORN’s: “Muscle for the Money” program:

Clinton pictured above with ACORN founder Wade Rathke (found by tina07). The tax-exempt Clinton Foundation had just donated $250,000 to ACORN. The tax-exempt Clinton Foundation provided $275,000 in grants for ACORNS’S "Katrina Benefits Access project" and ACORN'S "Operation Hope Project; Restore Hope." The tax-exempt Clinton Foundation also helped secure private sector commitments for ACORN. =============================================== REFERENCE The IRS has pinpointed tax-exempt "foundations and charities" as the locus classicus for tax evasion and money laundering. The BIGGEST tax-exempt fraud --- a tax-exempt foundation writing checks to a tax-exempt charity (the way crooks look "altruistic" as they siphon off tax-free money...

Starting sometime in the late 1990's and ending sometime in the early part of this decade, Dale Rathke was involved in embezzling somewhere in the neighborhood of $1 million from the ACORN accounting and financial services arm Citizen Consulting Incorporated. At the time, Dale Rathke was heading up CCI. As I have pointed out, CCI has acted as the weigh station for all financial funds for ACORN and all its affiliates. In other words, any money earmarked for any activity within the ACORN network starts out at CCI.

It started as a rumor told by insiders to media. Insiders believed that all the revelations were making the ACORN brand so toxic that they may have to change it. Then, ACORN Intl. changed its name and they thought that was an indication they were. Of course ACORN Intl. is NOT ACORN. Yet, for whatever reason, that's how it was reported by Washington Examiner columnist Kevin Mooney. Moonedy has been on television speaking about ACORN.

ACORN doesn't like it when large and powerful organizations don't pay their taxes. Why just two months ago, the group picketed the Philadelphia Eagles over this very issue. THERE'S NOTHING like a good old-fashioned tailgate party during the offseason. In Wynnewood. About 50 people passed around grilled hot dogs - chanting "Pay, Eagles, Pay" to the tune of the team's fight song - in front of team owner Jeffrey Lurie's Llanfair Road mansion yesterday to urge him to fork over the millions of dollars that the team owes the city.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/10/us/10acorn.html Correction Appended In the wake of an embezzlement scandal that rocked the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or Acorn, two of its board members are seeking a court order to force it to hand over financial documents. They also are seeking to sever what they describe as continuing ties between Acorn and its founder, Wade Rathke, who resigned after it became public this summer that his brother had embezzled almost $1 million from the organization eight years ago. They contend that Mr. Rathke continues to direct the staff and expenditures. “Acorn will suffer irreparable harm if the...

If you believe Crystal Gail Mangum, the ex-convict stripper still falsely posing as a gang rape victim, you probably believe that the innocuously named ACORN (the acronym for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) is a fine association honorably pursuing laudable goals. That's nuts! Mangum is a con artist still lying outrageously and ACORN is a sinister association out to take over America by putting politicians of its choosing, especially Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., in power, by doing whatever it takes, despite the law. ACORN is dangerous. Bowing to ACORN's political power and thuggish tactics resulted in many of...